As the hip-hop battle rages in the background somewhere between black literati, consumers, and observers, I stand objectively nodding religiously at Lupe Fiasco as he creates a narrative surrounding the personified life of a housing complex of each component. , legs, chest, another facet of life in the neighborhood. Some would present Lupe as an alternative to hip-hop, glorifying his intellectualism and political consciousness, at the expense of demonizing other, less academically articulate rap artists. Maybe they deserve it. Maybe they are poorly educated and uneducated. But does this delegitimize their message? Understanding the messages of many gangsta rap artists is a complex task for those whose lived experiences are unrelated. We need to find an alternative way to understand and criticize the music we consider trash. What do rappers actually say? The book Thug Life by Michal P. Jefferies offers us alternative tools to answer this question. I'm looking to further explore Jefferies' "cool complex" and how it allows a thug masculinity to include love and other emotional feelings. At the start of the work, Jefferies seeks to identify what hip-hop is. The most poignant discovery is not so dark. and white people think differently about its meaning, but what has emerged is the recognition that hip-hop was created as a tool to express the feelings of the disenfranchised. This places the birth of Hip-Hop in the cradles of deprivation of rights, the neighborhood. Hip-hop functioned as a megaphone, a magnifying glass that candidly revealed to anyone who would listen the hardships, injustice and racism faced by those living in America's ghettos. This worked as a tool to tell the stories of the people living there in order to build an empathetic conversation...... middle of paper ...... the population not only suffers emotionally but expresses this pain frankly . These artists are able to both present this hyper-masculine image and at the same time reflect on its moral failing. It is this apologetic and regrettable nature of drug narratives that allows artists to become folk heroes. By telling the story of his drug dealing past and conveying a sense of regret, he reaches out to those in a similar situation to his own and, in a way, delivers a confession to himself. apologize to those he hurt. With Jefferies' cool complex, we can understand gangsta rappers as something more than nihilistic villains. It may not be the preferred way to depict the story of life in the ghetto, but that's exactly what it does. Even with commercial hip-hop, real feelings slip through the corporate cracks to reveal a gangsta masculinity that is emotionally responsive and aware..